Nine hours was a good amount of time to quickly see Melbourne. Took the bus to the center of town, and started exploring the alleys. Went on a boat tour of the Yarra, which I'd recommend. My impression was that it is a nice city with a serious graffiti problem. Saw a graffiti removal wagon with 2 workers in it sitting there and a few hundred feet away was a wall covered with graffiti.
Made it back to the airport and security turned us back, as they claimed our boarding passes printed in LA weren’t going to scan. I’m glad we were turned back, because when we went to get our Row 9 BPs reprinted, the desk agent informed us we were in Premium Economy, Row 1, Seats A and C. All segments on the ticket had shown Z fare, so this made sense. The friendly, enthusiastic agent in LAX had tried, but the system wouldn’t allow him to assign us those seats.
Stopped in the Air New Zealand lounge before the flight.
